If Trump Does Not Get Convicted…

…Who Ever Will?

Does a president have to go on Fifth Avenue in New York and shoot a random stranger to get impeached and convicted?

 

Some Things You Can’t Unsee

Watching the inauguration ceremonies on Wednesday, we kept seeing dignitaries come out the gate of the Capitol, walking down the stairs and to their seats. I have watched these ceremonies all my life.

Here is President Biden getting sworn in, and behind him you can see the door they came through.

Here is a view of the riots at the Capitol exactly two weeks before, showing, as far as I can tell, the same door.

This is where the mob dragged police officers out of the door and down the steps. They were beating them with flagpoles of the American flag.

These are the same people that complained when Kaepernick took a knee at a football game that he was dishonoring the American flag. Apparently there is nothing wrong with using a flag to beat up a police officer, but kneeling during the anthem is dishonoring the flag.

The desecration of the symbols of the oldest democracy in the world, and the very building from which it comes, is being called “patriotic” by this band of thugs. These are the people who say they want to make America great again, with Trump’s name right there.

Some pictures cannot be unseen.

I will always see this in front of me when I see the dignitaries exit this door of the Capitol in the future. It’s as burned into my memory as the twin towers in New York, smoking black into the blue morning sky of September 11, 2001.

Despicable.

Trump’s America – Are We Great Again Yet

Right now, every minute, THREE Americans die of Covid-19. 

Every minute, day, night, 24/7. 

Are we great again yet? 

Where the Terrorists Are

 

We need more troops at our own Capitol, the head of our own government, to protect the inauguration of our new administration from domestic terrorists. Four years ago domestic terrorist attacks were rare. Now pretty much every member of Congress in our “homeland” fears for their lives, both in Washington and at home.

Is America great again yet?

The Final Trumpdown

[click to enlarge]
Here is the front page of a German newspaper. The article on the bottom says that the attempted coup in the USA is not over. On the right of the image you see the “days left” counter as if we were waiting for Christmas. Noch 9 Tage – nine days to go. Germany, and pretty much the entire world, are just as jittery as we are here in the United States. Counting down the hours now.

Trump’s Coup Was Planned and Choreographed


Now Trump is throwing his followers under the bus. Their help hasn’t worked, so what good are they? They are now being arrested in California, Florida, Arkansas, all over the place.

They are saying it was the radial left that incited the mob. Nonsense. This was carefully planned and executed. Heck, this man is wearing a pre-printed sweatshirt with the date and the mission on it. Spontaneous it was not. He is wearing the hat with the name of the Dear Leader on it. Trump may say it was  the left, but the agitators themselves seem to not realize that, do they?

While I don’t usually use obscenities in my blog – I am not modifying Greg’s words here. He is not buying it either. Read for yourself. It’s worth your while.

that lying fucker is fucking lying again ‹ gregfallis.com ‹ Reader — WordPress.com

Taking a Stand vs. Taking a Stand

Right picture credit: Getty Images photographer Win McNamee

Trump said on September 22, 2017 about Kaepernick: “Get that son of a bitch off the field” about Colin Kaepernick.

Trump said on January 6, 2021 to the rioters: “We love you, you’re very special.”

The looter in the right picture is carrying the lectern of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The man was identified as 36-year-old Adam Johnson of Florida, the father of five children. Teach your children well!

More identities of rioters are included in this article.

Is America great yet?

Trump Coup Attempt

I am reading ridiculous claims from Trump supporters that there was no difference between what happened in the BLM protests in many cities and particularly in Portland last fall, and this riot at the Capitol.

I think this is very wrong and very disturbing.

Look at the picture below. There are masked guys in camouflage, one carrying zip cuffs. These are the devices used to temporarily handcuff people. Who do you think they were planning on cuffing? They are on the Senate floor in this picture, but there are more pictures with them in other areas.

[click for picture credit – Reddit
Here are the ballot boxes that were on the Senate floor just before the break-in.

[click for picture credit – Fox 11]
If a Senate aide hadn’t had the presence of mind to take away these boxes and secure them, they would have remained on the Senate floor. What do you think the mob would have done with these boxes?

They would have been vandalized, destroyed or stolen. In any event, they would be gone.

The zip cuffs could have been used to tie up the Senators.

The electoral votes would be gone, and thus, all evidence of the election would be lost. It would have been chaos. Trump would have declared martial law. He would have decided that he would have to stay in office until “this was all resolved orderly” and it would have taken month or years to work it out.

The coup would have been successful.

Mission accomplished. The 2020 election would have been the last election in the history of the United States, and its results would have been wiped out.

Somebody give this Senate aide a medal!

 

Only the Best

Here are the best and brightest who still support Trump. These are some of the people who entered into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. I expect the Justice Department to prosecute them. We have them on film right here.

Let’s remember what Trump said in July when BLM protesters were conducting peaceful protests in Portland, Oregon. They did not enter any buildings, smash any windows, or desecrate public property. They did not fly Confederate flags in U.S. buildings.

Trump called for a minimum of 10 years in prison for this kind of behavior.

That same Trump fomented riots in the U.S. Capital yesterday.

I hate to say it – lock them up!

Trump About Accepting Defeat with Dignity

Trump, in 2016, complained about Clinton not accepting defeat with dignity, quoting Putin.

Oh, the irony.

How #DiaperDon Became Possible

Trump held a news conference on Thanksgiving sitting at an oddly small desk.

Not only did this make for strange optics, particularly with Trump being a big man, he made it worse by flying off the handle when he didn’t like some of the questions from reporters. At one point, he railed “I am the President of the United States! Don’t talk to me like that…..” which of course looked like a tantrum a school boy would throw when he didn’t get his way.

Social media went wild. Here is an example:

There seem to be thousands of images like this, framing Trump as a toddler, and #DiaperDon instantly rose to the top of Twitter trends.

After doing this to himself yesterday, he is piling on today coming after Twitter as if somehow it’s their fault that thousands of people thought it funny and started posting modified images.

Trump is obviously out of touch with reality. Nobody forced him to sit down at the tiny desk and act like a toddler. He did this to himself. Now he is throwing more tantrums because he does not like the outcome, making it yet worse, because if you didn’t check Twitter before this, you surely will now.

This is obviously what happens if you surround yourself only with sycophants. Somebody actually decided to use this tiny desk for a press conference. Perhaps it was a purposeful choice? But does it not strike you as odd that nobody in the White House thought it wise to tell him that this was probably not a good idea and he should not sit at a tiny desk?

 

Book Review: The Room Where it Happened – by John Bolton


We all know who John Bolton is, we all know how his tenure at the White House started and ended, and we know Bolton’s role, or lack thereof, in the Trump impeachment proceedings.

So I don’t have to tell you what this book is about, but I can rather focus on telling you my experience reading the book, about what I learned, and, most importantly, what conclusions I drew.

John Bolton has been around the United States government, and particularly foreign policy, for decades. I knew little about him, and I would simply have categorized him a “hawk” in line with the generally liberal sentiment in my usual circles. When I first heard that Trump was going to install him as National Security Advisor, I was deeply worried that his hawkishness would get us into new conflicts and would even further endanger our already very dangerous world.

I bought the book the day it first came out on June 23, 2020, and started reading it right away. But it is a long book, with detailed, journal-like narration describing events as they took place with sometimes down to the minute accuracy. It really does put the reader into the room where it happened. The book is very long, and takes a long time to read, so I had to interrupt reading it when Mary Trump’s book came out, so I could read that one right way, and then again I had to lay it aside to make room and time for Michael Cohen’s book. But I kept going back and I forced myself to slog through it, and I finished tonight.

Trump fought vehemently to have the publication of The Room Where it Happened blocked. I expected some type of tell-all book, but that’s not at all what it is. It basically talks about the United States foreign policy from the point of view of a man who deeply understands it and has lived it all his life. Since Trump has no understanding of world affairs and any matters that don’t involve him personally, clearly this book will “make Trump look bad,” not because Bolton says Trump is a fool or anything like it, but because Bolton allows us to sit in the room with him, and Trump, and Mulvaney, and Mattis, and Pompeo, and we can watch Trump make a fool of himself by showing clearly and overtly that he does not know what he is talking about, that he has no interest in governing and certainly not foreign affairs, and that he is as smart as the last person he talked to wants him to be. That was particularly dangerous and ludicrously embarrassing for our country when he “negotiated” with Putin, Kim Jong-un, Erdogan, Xi, and pretty much every other adversary of our national interests.

Bolton does not make Trump look bad. Bolton just shows us how inept Trump is for all of us plain to see. Unlike Trump, where his supporters always are quoted saying “he tells it like it is,” Bolton actually does tell it like it is.

Bolton is definitely a proponent of America carrying a big stick and operating from strength. Trump just thinks of himself being the smartest man in the room, and he tells us that all the time, and he thinks he is the big stick. Yet, Bolton shows us clearly that Trump was and is our most serious security risk, consistent with what we have learned from Mattis, McMaster, Coats and the entire national security establishment. I can see why Trump didn’t want this book published.

I know that a lot of Trump supporters have blasted Bolton as a traitor for writing this. Well, let me tell you this: If 3% of all Trump supporters actually read The Room Where it Happened, I’d be very surprised. To read this, you have to be very patient, persistent, interested in foreign polity, and tenacious. This is NOT AN EASY book to read, and I predict most people who buy the book won’t finish it. So let them blab about Bolton being a traitor, or let the liberals blab about him being a hawk. Neither side knows what it is talking about. They have to read the book first before I would take them seriously.

And here is my probably shocking conclusion: On a scale from 1 to 10, my respect for Bolton, for what I knew about him before reading the book, may have been around 2. It’s now at 9 or so. I actually believe he would be an excellent pick for Biden to choose for Secretary of State. It would ensure that our foreign relations would be rebuilt, corrected, and put on a secure footing. Our adversaries would be on notice and our security would be enhanced. By choosing Bolton for this critical slot, Biden would ensure consistency from the past, a strong presence in the world, and he could focus on the many domestic issues that need attention, without having to lose sleep about what’s going on in the world. I know this opinion of mine will shake up some of my readers, but I stand by it.

Now, of course, there is no chance Biden will do such a thing, and history will continue.

I gained a lot of respect for Bolton by reading his book, and his mustache doesn’t bother me one bit.

How to Fix a Poll – Chapter Ten in Cohen’s Book

If you want to learn more about what Trump thinks about polls and voting, read Chapter 10 – How to Fix a Poll – by Michael Cohen.

I previously wrote about it in this post.

Unfollowing Trump’s Twitter Feed

I have just unfollowed Trump on Twitter. His tweets are no longer relevant to me.

Note, ironically, I follow “God” on Twitter. Highly recommended.

I Don’t Understand 72 Million Trump Voters

I don’t get it.

What has Trump actually done? Promises made, promises kept? Really?

He was going to build a wall that Mexico would pay for. He hasn’t done that.

He was going to introduce a “beautiful” comprehensive health care plan within the first few weeks of his presidency. Nothing happened.

He was going to kill the Affordable Care Act. He didn’t.

He was going to implement a great and exciting infrastructure initiative. We saw nothing.

Yes, he delivered a massive tax cut which eventually added trillions of dollars to the national debt and will need to be paid for by our grandchildren. Great accomplishment! Giving away other people’s money to rich people. I didn’t see any tax cut benefits myself.

He did undo a lot of things that previous administrations built, more than I can list here. But undoing is not the same as building. Anybody can wield a wrecking ball. Not everybody can create and build.

He completely mismanaged our country’s response to the pandemic.

I don’t understand how 72 million people were happy enough with this performance to vote for him.

I really don’t understand that.